This week, the world watched in anticipation for Russia’s Victory Day parade after President Volodymyr Zelensky commented that he could not guarantee the safety of those attending. Meanwhile, the European Union moves one step forward to banning Russian gas from the European continent. It is also revealed this week that U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has fallen out of step with the White House.
"(Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin... doesn't want to have a ceasefire agreement with Ukraine, but rather wants to meet on Thursday, in Turkey, to negotiate a possible end to the bloodbath. Ukraine should agree to this, immediately," U.S. President Donald Trump said.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to to Antalya, Turkey, for a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting from May 14–16, where he is expected to address the war in Ukraine and push for stronger Allied defense commitments.
The Kremlin said the leaders held a detailed discussion about the Russian initiative and Erdogan expressed full support, reiterating Turkey’s readiness to provide a venue and assist in organizing the negotiations.
Erdogan told Macron that international cooperation is critical for initiating peace negotiations and the "sensitive implementation" of Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction processes, the Turkish Presidency reported.
The assault began around 2 a.m. on May 11, with Russian forces deploying 108 Shahed-type attack drones and decoy UAVs from multiple directions, Ukraine’s Air Force said.
"Think of the hundreds of thousands of lives that will be saved as this never ending 'bloodbath' hopefully comes to an end... I will continue to work with both sides to make sure that it happens."
Illustrative purposes only: A picture shows a compressor station of Ukraine's Naftogaz national oil and gas company near the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Aug 5. 2014. (Sergey Bobok/AFP via Getty Images)
Companies of Ukraine's state-owned Naftogaz Group produced 8.6 billion cubic meters (bcm) of commercial gas in the first seven months of 2024, representing a 7% increase compared to the same period last year, the company's press service said on Aug. 6.
Once heavily dependent on Russian gas, Ukraine successfully shifted to other suppliers in the previous decade and expanded its own production. For the first time in history, the country went through last winter using only its own gas.
"Companies of the Naftogaz Group increased gas production by launching new high-performance wells, introducing new technologies, and working efficiently with the old stock," said Oleksii Chernyshov, the CEO of Naftogaz.
"The target figures have been exceeded by 2%. The work continues not only in the central and western regions but also in the eastern ones, despite all the war-related challenges."
JSC Ukrgasvydobuvannya has recently launched a new high-yield well that produces 274 thousand cubic meters of gas per day.
In total, in the first half of 2024, Ukrgasvydobuvannya drilled 50 wells, 41 of which were put into operation.
Naftogaz Group is actively preparing for the winter, with more than 10 billion cubic meters of gas already stored in underground storage facilities.
Dominic Culverwell
